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This page is about the historiographic concept and term itself. For the history of science fiction in this era, see History of science fiction § Birth of the pulps and History of US science fiction and fantasy magazines to 1950.
First issue of Amazing Stories, April 1926. Its publication is often regarded as the beginning of the pulp era of science fiction.

In the history of science fiction, the pulp era (occasionally pulp age[1]: 91 ) is a period subject to various definitions. It is commonly held to have begun in 1926, the year the first science fiction magazine—Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories—was launched. The end point is usually placed in the 1950s, when the pulp magazines ceased publication. Various largely similar definitions exist that differ by a few years in either direction at the beginning or end of the period, though there are some outliers—by the broadest definition the era began in 1896 with the first (albeit genre-nonspecific) pulp magazine Argosy, and by the narrowest it ended in 1937 with the onset of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Background

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The first pulp magazine appeared in 1896 when Frank Munsey changed the format of Argosy and started printing it on pulp paper.[2] Argosy and the magazines that followed in its wake carried general fiction, including science fiction;[3]: 15  the first science fiction story published in a pulp magazine was Charles H. Palmer's "Citizen 504", which appeared in the very first pulp issue of Argosy (December 1896).[4]: 22  Pulp magazines specializing in specific genres, such as Westerns or crime fiction, started appearing in the 1910s with titles like Detective Story Magazine (launched 1915) and Western Story Magazine (launched 1919).[2][3]: 16  The first pulp magazine devoted to speculative fiction—including but not limited to science fiction—was Weird Tales,[a] launched in 1923.[2]

The first dedicated science fiction magazine was Amazing Stories, launched by Hugo Gernsback in 1926,[9]: 23  though it was not originally a pulp magazine and would not be until 1933; the first science fiction magazine that was also a pulp magazine was Astounding Stories of Super-Science when it launched in 1930.[2] With the science fiction magazines came the notion of science fiction as a defined genre. This was also the origin of the term "science fiction" to refer to that genre; Gernsback adopted the term in 1929, having called the genre "scientifiction" at the 1926 launch of Amazing.[9]: 23 [10]: 32–33  Earlier works in the genre had received other labels; for instance, Jules Verne's had been referred to as voyages extraordinaires and H. G. Wells's as scientific romances.[11]: xvi 

Several additional magazines by Gernsback and others appeared, and in some cases disappeared again, in the years that followed;[2][7]: xiii  in 1937, there were seven science fiction pulp magazines in publication.[5]: 98  The majority of science fiction that was published in pulp magazines nevertheless continued to appear in general pulps rather than science fiction ones until 1943.[5]: 93–94, 98  Magazines remained the primary outlet for science fiction until the end of World War II, after which anthologies and novels became increasingly common alongside other forms of media such as film, television, and comics.[9]: 25–26 

After 1950, the pulps gradually disappeared, largely to be replaced by paperbacks and digest magazines, though new ones continued to appear as late as 1953.[5]: 99  The last remaining science fiction pulp magazine that had not changed format, Science Fiction Quarterly, ceased publication in 1958;[2] the last pulp magazine overall was Ranch Romances, the final issue of which was published in 1971.[5]: 93 

Definition

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Multiple different start and end points may be used.[12]: 109 

Start

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Proposed starting points
Year Notes Ref.
1896 First pulp magazine: Argosy
Science fiction in general pulp magazines 		[13]: x 
1923 First speculative fiction pulp magazine: Weird Tales
"Scientific Fiction" issue of Science and Invention 		[12]: 109 
1926 First science fiction magazine: Amazing Stories [12]: 109 
1930 First sf pulp: Astounding Stories of Super-Science [14]: 21 

The launch of Amazing in 1926 is commonly regarded as the start of the pulp era of science fiction, for instance by Gary Westfahl and Marshall Tymn.[12]: 109 [15]: 45  Others who use 1926 as the starting point include Mike Ashley and Lisa Yaszek.[16]: vii [17]: xii  Westfahl notes 1923 as another possible start point, with the launch of Weird Tales and the "Scientific Fiction" issue of Gernsback's Science and Invention.[12]: 109 

Amelia Beamer writes that in the context of science fiction, the pulp era is usually held to have begun with the specialized magazines of the 1920s, rather than with the earlier general pulps.[18]: 249  Nevertheless, the period when science fiction appeared in the general pulps is occasionally considered part of the pulp era;[19]: 15  for instance, Michael R. Page counts the pulp era as beginning with Argosy in 1896.[13]: x 

Eric Leif Davin, who favours using the term as shorthand for the period 1926–1960, comments that technically speaking the pulp era of science fiction lasted a few years shorter than that—from the first issue of Astounding (January 1930) to the last issue of Science Fiction Quarterly (February 1958);[14]: 21  similarly, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction writes that "The era of the specialist sf pulp magazine [...] ran from 1930 to the mid-fifties".[2]

End

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Proposed endpoints
Year Notes Ref.
1937–1940 Beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction [20]: 128 [21]: 28, 64 
1952 (No explicit reason) [12]: 109 
Mid-1950s Pulp die-off [18]: 249 
1955 Final issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Planet Stories [12]: 109 
1958 Final issue of Science Fiction Quarterly, the last remaining sf pulp [22]: 241 
1960 (No explicit reason) [14]: 21 

Beamer comments that the pulp era of science fiction is usually regarded to have ended with the demise of the pulps in the mid-1950s.[18]: 249  Jess Nevins likewise locates the end of the pulp era to the mid-1950s in general.[5]: 94  Westfahl regards the specific year 1955 as the end of the era, pointing to the demise of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Planet Stories. He also notes that E. Hoffmann Price considered 1952 the year the pulps died, and that this might also be taken as the endpoint.[12]: 109  Nathan Vernon Madison counts the final issue of Science Fiction Quarterly in 1958 as the end of the era.[22]: 241 

The pulp era is sometimes considered to have ended at the onset of the Golden Age of Science Fiction,[20]: 128  and other times to overlap with or encompass it.[18]: 249  The Golden Age is in turn generally held to have begun at or shortly after John W. Campbell's assumption of the editorship of Astounding in 1937.[18]: 249 [20]: 128 [23]: 5 [24][25]: 288  David M. Higgins and Roby Duncan, in The Science Fiction Handbook, count the Golden Age as succeeding the pulp era from 1937.[20]: 128  Jeremy Withers takes the pulp era as ending, and the Golden Age as beginning, around 1940.[26]: 22 [21]: 28, 64 

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According to Adam Roberts, the pulp era is also sometimes known as the "Gernsback era" after Hugo Gernsback.[27]: 256  Others consider the Gernsback era to be part of the broader pulp era.[21]: 28  E. F. Bleiler and Richard Bleiler's 1998 reference work Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years defines the period as starting in 1926 (when Gernsback founded Amazing) and ending in 1936 (the year Gernsback sold Wonder Stories).[28]: 157 

Brian Attebery, in The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, labels the period from 1926 to 1960 the "magazine era" based on the dominance of this mode in shaping the direction and identity of the genre.[27]: 260 [10]: 32 

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The Thrill Book, which saw a total of sixteen issues in 1919, is sometimes described as the first.[5]: 95–96 [6] It was initially a dime novel, switching to the pulp format halfway through its run.[6] It specialized in adventure fiction "with an unusual twist" and sought to publish stories that other magazines would reject "because of their odd qualities and harrowing nature".[4]: 38 [7]: xii [8]: 61  It printed a substantial amount of science fiction and otherwise supernatural fiction and fantasy, but was not limited to these genres.[4]: 38 

References

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  1. ^ Brake, Mark; Hook, Neil (2007). "Pulp Fiction: The Astounding Age". Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 71–100. ISBN 978-0-230-55389-7. [Hugo Gernsback's] defining contribution was as the publisher and creator of the pulp age of science fiction associated with the publication of mass market magazines.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Nicholls, Peter; Ashley, Mike (2023). "Pulp". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  3. ^ a b Lambourne, R. J.; Shallis, M. J.; Shortland, M. (1990). "Science and the Rise of Science Fiction". Close Encounters?: Science and Science Fiction. CRC Press. pp. 1–33. ISBN 978-0-85274-141-2.
  4. ^ a b c Ashley, Mike (2000). "Before the Creation". The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950. The History of the Science-Fiction Magazine. Vol. 1. Liverpool University Press. pp. 1–44. ISBN 978-0-85323-855-3.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Nevins, Jess (2014). "Pulp Science Fiction". In Latham, Rob (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. pp. 93–103. ISBN 978-0-19-983884-4.
  6. ^ a b Bleiler, Richard; Ashley, Mike (2023). "Thrill Book". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  7. ^ a b Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1998). "Introduction". Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines ... from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. pp. xi–xxx. ISBN 978-0-87338-604-3.
  8. ^ Ashley, Mike (2005). "Science Fiction Magazines: The Crucibles of Change". In Seed, David (ed.). A Companion to Science Fiction. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 60–76. ISBN 978-0-470-79701-3.
  9. ^ a b c Westfahl, Gary (2021). "Science Fiction from 1926 to 1960". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 23–27. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
  10. ^ a b Attebery, Brian (2003). "The Magazine Era: 1926–1960". In James, Edward; Mendlesohn, Farah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–47. ISBN 978-0-521-01657-5.
  11. ^ Gunn, James (2003). "Foreword". In James, Edward; Mendlesohn, Farah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press. pp. xv–xviii. ISBN 978-0-521-01657-5.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Westfahl, Gary (2003). "Three Decades That Shook the World, Observed through Two Distorting Lenses and under One Microscope". Science Fiction Studies. 30 (1): 109–122. doi:10.1525/sfs.30.1.0109. ISSN 0091-7729. JSTOR 4241144. Archived from the original on 2025-01-19 – via DePauw University.
  13. ^ a b Page, Michael R. (2008). "Introduction: Miles J. Breuer—Science Fiction Pioneer of the Nebraska Plains". "The Man with the Strange Head" and Other Early Science Fiction Stories. By Miles J. Breuer. University of Nebraska Press. pp. ix–xxxvii. ISBN 978-0-8032-1931-1. Science fiction had been developing in the pulps—the early American popular fiction magazines—and in the more literary fiction magazines in Britain since the late nineteenth century. The pulp era began when Frank Munsey's boys' paper Golden Argosy evolved into the adult all-fiction magazine Argosy in 1896.
  14. ^ a b c Davin, Eric Leif (2006). "Introduction: Science Fiction and the Contested Terrain of Popular Culture". Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965. Lexington Books. pp. 1–25. ISBN 978-0-7391-1267-0.
  15. ^ Tymn, Marshall B. (1985). "Science Fiction: A Brief History and Review of Criticism". American Studies International. 23 (1): 41–66. ISSN 0883-105X. JSTOR 41278745. Science fiction entered a new phase when, in 1926, Gernsback placed the first issue of Amazing Stories on the newsstands. [...] With Amazing Stories the pulp era of science fiction began.
  16. ^ Ashley, Mike; Tymn, Marshall B., eds. (1985). "Preface". Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines. Historical Guides to the World's Periodicals and Newspapers. Greenwood Press. pp. vii–xii. ISBN 978-0-313-21221-5. ISSN 0742-5538. It was during the pulp era (roughly from 1926 until the early 1950s) that fantastic literature separated itself from the mainstream of publishing.
  17. ^ Yaszek, Lisa (2018). "Introduction". In Yaszek, Lisa (ed.). The Future Is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin: A Library of America Special Publication. Library of America. pp. ix–xxi. ISBN 978-1-59853-580-8. OCLC 1055674248. what is commonly known as the Pulp Era: the period from 1926 to 1940, approximately
  18. ^ a b c d e Beamer, Amelia. "Pulp Science Fiction". In Reid, Robin Anne (ed.). Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Vol. 2: Entries. Greenwood Press. pp. 248–250. ISBN 978-0-313-33592-1. Although the first actual pulp-paper fiction magazines date from 1896, the "pulp era" in SF usually refers to the period between the founding of the first specialist magazines, Weird Tales in 1923 and Amazing Stories in 1926, and the pulp die-off in the mid-1950s. The "golden age" of pulp science fiction usually refers to John Campbell's tenure at Astounding from 1938 to 1955.
  19. ^ Cunningham, Jesse G. (2002). "Science Fiction: An Overview—The Pulp Era: From Burroughs to Gernsback". In Cunningham, Jesse G. (ed.). Science Fiction. Greenhaven Press Literary Movements and Genres. Greenhaven Press. pp. 15–17. ISBN 978-0-7377-0571-3. No titles, however, were devoted exclusively to sf until Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories in 1926. Before that time, the earliest sf writers of the pulp era published their work in nongenre-specific pulp titles, such as Argosy.
  20. ^ a b c d Higgins, David M.; Duncan, Roby (2013). "Key Critical Concepts, Topics and Critics". In Hubble, Nick; Mousoutzanis, Aris (eds.). The Science Fiction Handbook. A&C Black. pp. 125–142. ISBN 978-1-4725-3897-0. Golden Age: A term used to refer to the period from 1937 (when John W. Campbell took over as editor of Amazing [sic] Stories) through the late 1950s in US SF publishing. The Golden Age followed the pulp era of the 1920s and 30s
  21. ^ a b c Withers, Jeremy (2020). "Perfectibility and Techno-Optimism in the Pulp Era". Futuristic Cars and Space Bicycles: Contesting the Road in American Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. pp. 25–64. ISBN 978-1-78962-175-4. the pulp era (c.1926–40)
    [...] what is often referred to as the 'Gernsback era' (c.1926–36) and occurs within the more general pulp era.
    [...]
    [...] what many people refer to as the 'Golden Age' of sf (c.1940–60).
  22. ^ a b Madison, Nathan Vernon (2021). "American Science Fiction Magazines in the Pulp Era". In Lanzendörfer, Tim (ed.). The Routledge Companion to the British and North American Literary Magazine. Routledge. pp. 232–242. doi:10.4324/9780429274244-25. ISBN 978-0-429-27424-4. Science Fiction Quarterly's final issue, dated February 1958, ended the pulp era of science fiction
  23. ^ Asimov, Isaac (1989). "Introduction: 'The Age of Campbell'". In Asimov, Isaac (ed.). The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1940s. pp. 1–6. ISBN 978-0-88184-480-1. The July 1939, issue was the first issue that was truly marked by Campbell's thinking and Campbell's new authors, and it is usually considered as the first issue of 'the Golden Age of science fiction'.
  24. ^ Nicholls, Peter; Ashley, Mike (2021). "Golden Age of SF". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2025-04-17. There is little argument about when the Golden Age began. The term [...] is almost always seen as referring to the period ushered in by John W Campbell Jr's assumption of the editorship of Astounding in October 1937.
  25. ^ Roberts, Adam (2016). "Golden Age SF: 1940–1960". The History of Science Fiction. Palgrave Histories of Literature (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 287–331. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-56957-8_11. ISBN 978-1-137-56957-8. OCLC 956382503. Fans bicker pleasantly amongst themselves over the dates most properly connected with this Age, nominally golden. There is a consensus that it starts in 1938–39 [...]
  26. ^ Withers, Jeremy (2020). "Introduction". Futuristic Cars and Space Bicycles: Contesting the Road in American Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–24. ISBN 978-1-78962-175-4. the pulp era (c.1926–40) of sf
  27. ^ a b Roberts, Adam (2016). "The Early 20th Century, 2: The Pulps". The History of Science Fiction. Palgrave Histories of Literature (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 253–285. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-56957-8_10. ISBN 978-1-137-56957-8. OCLC 956382503.
  28. ^ Gunn, James (1999). "Review of Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years". Utopian Studies. 10 (1): 157–159. ISSN 1045-991X. JSTOR 20718020.
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